


Light in the Heart of Darkness

by meyari



Series: Tim Drake: Demon Hunter [2]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Buddhism, Gen, Muteness, No Man's Land
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 01:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tim Drake was seven, he received a present from his parents: A tiny gold Bodhisattva figure. He loved it because they gave it to him but when he was ten it became much more. After a near-death experience the Bodhisattva figure opened up a whole new world for Tim, one where he had the potential to right wrongs, save people and banish demons that caused the world pain.</p>
<p>Cassandra Cain had encountered many things in her young life, some of which were decidely not living beings. She had never had words for what they were and how they scared her until she met a teenage boy in the heart of No Man's Land. He saved her from the things lurking in the shadows. Later, she met him again and discovered that someone was battling the things she couldn't, protecting her and the world from the dangers she could only see but never touch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light in the Heart of Darkness

_She slipped through the destruction left by the earthquake, intent on delivering the message the red-headed women had given her. Food and smiles and hugs were payment promised on her return. The smiles and hugs carried as much weight in her mind as the promise of good food to eat._

_This area of the city was dark, not even fitful electric lights left after the earthquake and isolation that had been imposed upon it. She did not like coming here. The shadows seemed to move around her as if they were animals hunting for meals. Whenever she looked directly at them the shadows were nothing but shadows. Still, she could feel something watching her, creeping up on her._

_"Down!"_

_The word carried no meaning but when she whirled the teen boy's body told her 'down', 'danger' and 'protect'. She dropped to the ground, mouth dropping open at the light that blazed from the boy's metal-tipped staff. He slammed the butt end into the broken asphalt, sending up showers of sparks that seemed alive._

_A moment later they flew around him in a hurricane of light and fire. She thought she heard screams of fear but her ears only heard the boy's voice droning in a fierce chant. The screams seemed to come from somewhere else entirely. She felt the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end as the light and fire swirled wider and wider, expanding to encompass the entire broken alley that they were in._

_His body spoke of determination and faith, commitment to something greater than himself. She stared until the light became so bright that she had to cover her eyes. It was too much, too powerful, beyond anything that she'd seen before in her life. Her father had never taught her of things like this._

_Something exploded, she couldn't tell what. She covered her head, expecting a rain of debris to fall around her. Instead there was silence for a long moment. A bird sang a hesitant note. A second answered. When Cass lifted her head the boy smiled at her, offering a hand._

_"You shouldn't come through here," he said, the words meaningless while his body said 'not safe place', 'protect, protect, protect' along with whispers of unwanted attraction to Cass's body._

_She nodded her thanks, looking around. The shadows were just shadows. It didn't feel threatening anymore. He smiled curiously, head cocked to the side. This time her nod of thanks was deeper, a proper bow, with a smile that made him blush and laugh breathlessly. When she waved a hand to say goodbye as the red-haired woman had taught her, he lifted one hand. His fingers twisted in a strange pattern as he sketched something in the air while muttering under his breath._

_"Fare well and be safe," the boy said while his body promised protection from afar and good wishes to her._

_She bowed again before walking and then running away. Whatever had happened just now, she suspected that the boy had protected her. Perhaps after her delivery was done she could try communicating what had happened to the red-haired woman. Maybe she could explain what the boy had protected her from and how he had done it._

+++++

Cass thought that the big house with many windows was too much like the alley from No Man's Land. Bruce had carefully explained, slowly in words that Cass was only just beginning to understand, that it was his home. It had been home to many, many generations of his family. He had said with his body and his mouth that it was now her home, too.

She wasn't sure that she wanted it to be home.

Many rooms felt dangerous like that alley. Some of the hallways had the same feeling as running a gauntlet of snipers waiting to shoot her. Cass hadn't been able to convey the message to Bruce. Of course, she hadn't been able to explain it to Barbara, either. All Cass knew was that some areas of the Manor felt safe but many, many other areas didn't.

"Problem?" Jason asked as he limped closer, leaning heavily on his crutches.

"Dark," Cass replied, waving at one of the worst rooms in the manor.

It felt like death waited inside, like hungry packs of wild dogs were just waiting for someone to step within so that they could feast. Jason nodded grimly, his body speaking of complete understanding for what Cass meant.

"Yeah, that's one of the bad rooms," Jason said. "Tim's working on it."

"Tim?" Cass asked.

"Yeah, he's up the hallway," Jason said. "Wanna meet him?"

It took Cass a moment to parse 'hallway', 'up' and 'meet' into a request to introduce her to someone but once she did Cass nodded. "Please."

Jason smiled but all happiness fled once he started moving. His body screamed of pain and broken bones that had not healed properly. Cass did not know what had happened to Jason, Bruce had not been able to give her words for it. His body had screamed of fear and loss and fear of loss, love for Jason and now for Cass. Someday she would ask Alfred and watch the tiny twitches of face and body that Alfred allowed. He was always much quieter than Bruce who shouted his emotions and responses to Cass' eyes.

"Hey Tim," Jason called as they rounded a corner and came to a hallway that Cass hated going down. "You met my new sister Cass yet?"

"No farther," Tim said in a warning growl that didn't quite work because his voice was too high.

Cass gasped when Tim turned around. He was the boy who had saved her in the alley. Instead of the ragged jeans and dark jacket he had worn then, he was in gray pants and a sweatshirt with a very colorful image on the front. For some reason the image felt like him, like it was a part of him. She wasn't sure what the tall, stern faced Asian man in flowing robes was supposed to represent but it did seem very much like Tim.

"Hey," Tim said, his whole body lighting up with joy, delight and welcome. "You made it!"

"Huh?" Jason asked.

"We… met briefly during No Man's Land," Tim explained. "She entered an alley full of demons and I dispelled them. I always wondered if you made it through the crisis okay."

"Yes," Cass said, actually able to follow most of that because Tim talked with his body as well as his mouth. 'No Man's Land' was hunger-loneliness-destruction through Tim's body. His 'wonder' was more 'prayed and looked for you'. "Safe now. Thank you."

Tim frowned at Jason, his body asking why Cass spoke so strangely even though he didn't say a word. Jason laughed and shrugged only to sway as the movement hurt his back. Cass moved to help him sit down at the same time that Tim did, despite Jason's grumbles.

"You're still hurt," Tim scolded Jason. "You need to take it easy."

"I know, I know," Jason sighed. "I just…"

Cass gently hugged away the regret at past actions and frustration with current limitations. When she let go Tim was smiling at her and Jason. He went stern, turning to Cass with a clear order to keep Jason where he was.

"I've got one more to do before breakfast," Tim said, the words not at all matching with his body readying for battle. "Keep Jason right here. He always wants to wade in and that doesn't help."

"Will," Cass said as Jason spluttered protests.

Her hand on Jason's shoulder made Jason subside though she could feel his tension and worry for Tim. Still, he stayed in his chair, leaning his elbows on his crutches while Tim walked back up the hallway to stand in front of a huge vase that was half as tall as he was. For some reason Tim's being that close to the vase made Cass' heart beat faster. Facing a hungry tiger would be less terrifying.

Tim took out a tiny knife that was barely as long as Cass' palm, holding it with one finger laid along the triangle blade, his two middle fingers loosely crooked around the handle and his little finger extended out straight. The strange pose didn't make fighting sense, especially not when everything in Tim's body screamed mortal combat.

He began to chant. Dark shadows crept around him, obscuring the light from the window at the far end of the hallway. Cass thought she could see a woman in white with long dark hair creeping up behind Tim. When she took one step closer Jason caught her hand.

"No," Jason murmured. "Tim's battle, not ours."

The woman in white screamed something that Cass' ears could not hear as she swooped up into the air to dive down at Tim. He whirled and stabbed into her heart with his little knife. His chanting never stopped even as the woman dodged the blow. She came at him again, twisting aside and swirling away like smoke only to reappear behind Tim's back.

Cass gasped as the woman leaped the cling to Tim's back, arms and legs outstretched to strangle him while pinning his arms. Jason didn't seem to see anything at all. He just kept his grip on Cass' wrist even as the woman screamed silently in triumph.

Just as Cass thought Tim would lose the battle, he whirled and stabbed his tiny knife into the woman's heart. She wailed, the sound edging towards audible as her smoky, insubstantial body was consumed by light that radiated out from the tip of Tim's knife.

He chanted, his body speaking of compassion, forgiveness, release, until the woman in white disappeared entirely in a flash of light that reminded Cass of the alley where they'd met. She closed her eyes involuntarily. When she opened them again Tim was kneeling, on knee on the ground, and panting.

"You okay?" Jason called.

Tim lifted his head and smiled tiredly at them. "Yeah, just tired. Need to send this back to Japan. It was stolen from a grave. The ghost was very upset about that. She's been haunting the Manor ever since it came here."

Cass carefully went up the hallway, waiting for the dangerous feeling to return. Nothing happened. She stared at the vase, stared at Tim. He smiled wryly and shrugged as he stood on wobbly legs. There was a bleeding scratch on his cheek that Cass reached out and touched. The blood was fresh.

"It's nothing," Tim said, rubbing the blood away with the back of his hand. "Occupational hazard."

The words meant nothing to Cass. She hadn't heard them before. As Jason slowly hobbled up the hallway Cass read Tim's body instead. There was pride in a job well done, sorrow for the opponent he'd defeated, regret that his fight had frightened Cass. But underneath that was a deep sort of compassion for and protectiveness of the whole world that made tears come up in Cass' eyes.

"Thank you," Cass said as she abruptly hugged Tim tightly.

Tim's laugh was a tiny breath of air over her cheek. "You're welcome. Um… help me get Jason to eat lunch?"

Cass nodded, dashing away her tears of relief that there was someone protecting them all from the dangers she could see but could not fight. Tim seemed to understand without words. As Jason squawked and complained with words about not needing help even as his body screamed gratitude for the help, Tim and Cass shared a smile. She turned to Jason, pointing up the hallway imperiously.

"Lunch now," Cass announced. "No argue. All eat together."

Jason pretended to sigh even as his body laughed. "You got it, princess. Let's go raid the kitchen for food."

The End


End file.
